‘Just as Dangerous as the Insurrection’: Dean Phillips Compares Democrat Primary Process to January 6

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), one of President Joe Biden’s only Democrat challengers in the 2024 election, blasted his own party’s attempts to circumvent the primaries as “just as dangerous as the insurrection.”

Phillips, a congressman since 2019, made a Friday appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show, where he called out Democrats who claim to be “fighting for democracy” while keeping him off of ballots.

“How can Democrats say we’re fighting for democracy, we’re fighting to make voting easier, and then yet removing me from the ballot in Florida and North Carolina?” the presidential hopeful told radio personalities DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God. 

“How can you say you are for free speech and protecting freedom and democracy and not even consent to doing one debate? How can you say this?” Phillips exclaimed. 

He went on to scold the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for slamming New Hampshire Democrats’ unapproved primary process and keeping Biden off of the Florida primary ballot altogether in order to give all 250 delegates to the incumbent:

Right now, they’re saying this to the voters in New Hampshire: that their vote doesn’t count, that this is a meaningless primary. And it’s true, by the way, Democratic voters in Florida, North Carolina, and New Hampshire — their votes don’t count because in two states, there isn’t going to be a Democratic primary, and in the other state, there is, and their votes aren’t gonna matter. And this is the United States of America.

Phillips then made the head-turning comparison to January 6, 2021:

I was in the House chamber on January 6. I know what an insurrection is like. I know who inspired it and who promoted it. And now, frankly, Democrats are doing something to democracy that I think is just as dangerous as the insurrection because, at the end of the day, one was to prevent the counting of ballots — and right now, the Democratic Party is literally trying to prevent names from being added to ballots and people from even voting on those ballots. So that’s the truth, and they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want me to say it, but guys, man, someone’s got to listen.

The Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne Tha God then pointed out how Biden claimed that there were “probably 50” Democrats who could also beat former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, but no others besides Phillips and 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson have jumped in the primary race.

“Because nobody, nobody wants to go through what I’m going through right now, which is the most vicious, atrocious, aggressive attacks you can possibly imagine,” Phillips responded. “I mean, two months ago, I was a darling in the Democratic Party, and now I’m the devil. And I knew that…I knew what I was getting into.” 

In a video posted to his social media in November 2023, the Minnesota representative said, “This is the kind of stuff that happens in Tehran, not in Tallahassee.”

Addressing Charlamagne, Phillips said, “But you asked the question, why don’t others do it? Well, most people don’t want to be subjected to it; most people want to protect their image and their future and their, you know, their career.”

“And that’s why you have all these sheep in Washington, falling in line, constantly saying the same thing based on the talking points because they don’t want to do anything to hurt the next chance to be reelected,” he continued, adding that “when I did this, I knew my career in Congress was done. And it is.” 

He recalled how he even asked other people whose “names are much better known” to run, but they all said no because they knew what they would be subjected to. 

“…I just wish more people had the courage to stand up right now, and I’m disappointed,” Phillips added.

A recent poll found that 54 percent of Democrat voters want to replace 81-year-old Biden as their 2024 nominee, but they simply have not been given many choices. 

Robert Kennedy Jr. was making waves in the media through 2023 as a Democrat challenger, but he announced a switch to independent in October after facing similar intra-party challenges as Phillips. 

Republicans are having an open primary process despite the fact that Trump is widely considered to be the frontrunner and likely winner.